In And Out
by ChillifyVilify
Summary: It's a rather unfortunate circumstance that Young Link finds himself in. Just a quick ficlet to clear my head.


**Just a quick oneshot that caught my muse. Plus, there's barely any Young Link-centric fics on this site, or any site for that matter.**

**DISCLAIMERS:**

**This fic does contain violence- violence that is somewhat more gruesome in nature than what Smash Bros shows.**

**This fic is not related to Tears of Memory in any way, shape, or form. Feel free to look at that, though. Or don't, I guess.**

**I promise I don't have a morbid fascination with tormenting Young Link. It's just… okay, maybe I _do_, but I promise that I like the character.**

**ChillifyVilify does not, in any way, shape, or form, own Nintendo, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, or Masahiro Sakurai's soul.**

**On an unrelated note, please review.**

**!0*0!**

In and out.

In and out.

In and out.

At this point, Young Link was expecting this living hell to never end.

Back in the Melee tournament, there was this ability that the Ice Climbers had had that Mario called 'wobbling'. If they pulled it off correctly, it would allow Nana and Popo to continue grabbing and pummeling their victims forever, dealing insane amounts of damage and basically guaranteeing a kill. Wobbling had made the pair extremely skilled, even if Falco had complained about it a _lot_. Apparently, they also had this ability in the next tournament, Brawl, but Young Link (by the Three, he hated that denomination) wasn't there to see it.

Evidently, Ridley and King K. Rool had seen them do that, laughed, and set about designing a much more _painful_ reimagining of the already powerful technique.

It was a Team Smash, two versus two. Young Link had partnered up with Lucina, another time traveller from the Fire Emblem universe. They were surprisingly good friends despite the physical age difference; just having someone who understood all the weird nuances of time hopping and could talk about it was a godsend. If his heart didn't belong to Zelda (in his home universe, that is; being romantically inclined towards Sheik or this tournament's Zelda would be rather awkward), it would probably be pining for the princess of Ylisse.

She'd already been KO'd too many times, but had managed to take K. Rool down with her. Unfortunately, because Young Link was struggling too much with Ridley, the space pirate had had an extra stock to split with his banana-stealing friend. Ridley had fared much better against the child hero, lopping off enough stocks to prevent him from bringing Lucina back into the fight.

That led them into the torturous situation that the Hylian found himself locked in. It all started when K. Rool grabbed him for the first time. Those scaly claws were able to hold Link in his grasp with ease, and before Young Link knew what was happening, his spine was being introduced to the sharp end of Ridley's agonizingly sharp, barbed tail.

It yanked itself out of Link's body with a sickening slurping noise as blood quickly filled the void left by the tail. Time seemed to freeze for a second as his entire world- no, his entire _reality_ became consumed by pain, all centered in his torso. He slumped to the cold stone of the Battlefield, only for a collection of sharp claws to snatch him by the scruff of his neck.

In and out.

The loop repeated. A strangled gasp eked out of Young Link's throat as Ridley made another hole in his chest, this time a short distance above the last insertion point. K. Rool's grip held firm as splotches of red dotted the stage in front of him. Idly, the Hero remarked about how he was still lucid, considering he'd just been stabbed twice in the gut. It was something about this place, this tournament, he reasoned, shaking himself out of his thoughts just in time to get impaled again.

In and out.

Link sucked in a gasp as he felt the edge of Ridley's fifth limb effortlessly rip through his body, just missing the spinal cord. He fought to stay awake, knowing that unconsciousness would only make the pain worse when he woke up again. He knew this from experience; especially in battle, succumbing to one's wounds was as much of a death sentence as stabbing oneself in the neck. His eyes lidded over, and he forced himself to focus on something arbitrary in the background, to keep himself awake. He chose the beautiful waterfalls that lay far below him. They flowed serenely, calmly.

In and out.

There was another waterfall in his chest now, and the pain was almost starting to lessen. That was bad; numbness was never good. In battle, being numb meant that one couldn't listen to the cues from their body, and might miss out on something critical that may very well save their life.

What he wouldn't give to be a Goron right now. The thick, stony exterior of one of their race would be perfect for deflecting Ridley's skewer. Link let out a shuddering breath as he weakly struggled to get out of K. Rool's grip, but to no avail.

In and out.

In and out.

In and out.

And then a different sensation, although hardly more painless. Link was shocked to see the stage begin to move beneath him; this was Battlefield! There weren't any stage hazards! Then he realized that he was being aggressively dragged across the ground, and the warzone itself was staying still. He could feel Ridley's sharp talons tightly squeezing his neck as his wings beat furiously, dragging the helpless Hylian along the stage towards the blast zone. Link was relieved that the stabbings were over, at least. By whatever strange physics or magic this dimension possessed, all of his injuries would be somehow healed after the match ended. That thought, of course, didn't assuage Link's current pain of being forcibly pressed into the cold, jutting stone of the stage's floor as a giant purple space lizard shoved him further along it.

They reached the edge, and the space pirate let go, throwing Link off of the stage with an unearthly roar. The pent-up damage that the youth's body had sustained resulted in exponentially increased acceleration, causing him to fly straight into the highest blast zone at a speed that vastly outshined one of Fox's lasers.

There was a moment of agony as his body collided with the border, his entire being consumed by the chilling feeling of death-

And then there was nothing. He felt fine.

"GAME!"

**Now that my muse is satisfied, I can finally focus on other things. Like school.**

**Thanks for giving this tiny little ficlet a read! Sorry if it was traumatizing!**


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